Considering a decentralized identity (DI) solution? Is this your wish list:
✔️ You want to deploy DI capabilities in the simplest way possible.
✔️ You want to focus on your core business while leaving others to do the detailed technical work of deploying your DI solution.
✔️ You want to deploy your DI solution faster and at a much lower total cost of ownership (TOC) than other deployment models offer.
To have those wishes granted, you need a cloud-based, SaaS deployment model—a complete and managed solution that includes the deployment, management, maintenance, and support of DI services. In short, you need the Anonyome Platform.
More companies are turning to a SaaS solution for DI
For software providers and integrators, adding a DI infrastructure to their product lines presents many of the same choices they faced when integrating other system elements: for example, will we host our web servers in own own local data center using our own hardware? Or should we opt for the simplicity of leasing server space from a cloud hosting provider?
Both methods have benefits. Some companies enjoy the peace of mind that comes with controlling their own hardware and software stacks. Others—an increasing majority—find peace of mind comes from knowing that the hardware and software stacks are delivered and maintained through a contract model.
The contract model is often referred to as cloud hosting or the more formal Software as a Service (SaaS) model because the vendor provider deploys, manages, maintains, and provides support for the software.
Calculating the total cost of ownership (TOC) usually determines whether to use a SaaS or on-site deployment model. The key cost drivers for any software implementation are the costs of:
- software application
- hardware/hosting
- staff required to deploy, manage, maintain, and support the application.
Any of those cost drivers that a company can successfully outsource become line items in a budget without the operational complexities imposed by on-site deployments.
The Anonyome Platform embraces the SaaS model
Many companies have calculated the inefficiency, complexity, and additional expenses of the traditional on-site software model and have opted for the simplicity of the SaaS model. In fact, the SaaS model has become the de facto standard for delivering software solutions and the Anonyome Platform was built to embrace this model.
Here are 7 reasons why:
1. No upfront capital costs
With the SaaS model, the customer doesn’t have to bear the upfront capital costs of deploying a software solution or even contracting their own cloud provider. Instead, the SaaS vendor incurs these costs (e.g., hardware/hosting, software application, and IT staff hiring and training). This simplifies startup and operating costs for the customer, the customer only pays a monthly or annual subscription cost, and deployment is immediate.
2. Fast deployment
SaaS delivers an almost instant solution to the customer, which is far more attractive than waiting the many months typically required for deploying and testing in-house solutions. Anonyome provides a fully automated approach to deploying new environments for customers.
3. Vendor-provided maintenance and upgrades
In the on-site solution, a customer is on the hook for updating and applying security patches to the software and operating systems, and for performing compatibility tests with every change. On the other hand, in the SaaS model, the software vendor maintains and upgrades the software, which includes delivering new versions and security patching the hosted system to protect against security vulnerabilities.
4. No staffing requirements
Paying staff to research, design, integrate, test, finetune, and launch any system is a significant cost with in-house solutions—up to 75% of the overall costs, in fact. The SaaS model eliminates the staffing concerns for contracted services.
In new emerging areas such as DI, it may be extremely difficult to find new hires with the right skills. The Anonyome Labs’ team, on the other hand, is highly experienced and highly trained in DI technologies. Beyond the Anonyome Platform, we support the ongoing development of DI by:
- helping to run three DI-focused blockchains
- being an active contributor to the DI standards organizations
- contributing source code back to the DI open source community.
5. No-fuss application scalability
With in-house solutions, the customer must think about infrastructure issues such as network bandwidth, database and server sizing before deciding whether to ramp up their solution. But customers using the SaaS model don’t have to think about the technical how of scalability, because it’s already done for them. This leaves them free to focus on their business strategy and when to scale for maximum revenue.
6. 24-hour software support
The service level agreement (SLA) is key to a SaaS solution because it outlines the reliable actions and response times a customer can expect should an issue arise. With Anonyome’s global workforce across multiple time zones, staff are always on hand to respond to priority issues, even after hours at the customer’s site.
7. High level security and privacy
Under the SaaS model, the software vendor hires and trains people to maintain top security and privacy capabilities on the customer’s behalf, which is a significant resource saving.
DI is exploding as the new identity management solution
As you’d know, DI is the technology and standards that allow a new form of digital identity that works everywhere, is more trustworthy, and respects privacy. DI puts the user in sole control of the personal information that forms their identity. It’s decentralized because there’s no central authority or single issuing agent.
According to June 2023 figures, more than 62 per cent of US companies plan to incorporate a DI solution into their operations, with 74 per cent likely to do so within a year.
Read: Simple Definitions for Complex Terms in DI and 17 Industries with Viable Use Cases for DI
Centralized identity models are no longer sufficient to safeguard against exploitations from either rogue internal operators or external bad actors. DI has stepped into the breach, because:
- DI is safer: Without central storage of credentials, DI presents much less risk of credential theft or other operational issues for the customer as custodians of sensitive data.
- DI streamlines process:Organizations no longer have to repeatedly collect and distribute data, and sign-up and sign-in processes are faster because there’s no need to duplicate efforts and approvals.
- DI gives individuals control over data:The customer controls their own data, which reduces risk, unifies user experience, and boosts their satisfaction.
- DI reduces the compliance burden: The system eliminates manual error and inconsistent and redundant data distribution and validation.
The Anonyome Platform specializes in DI (and much more)
The Anonyome Platform does three things we know enterprise customers want:
- Very quickly deploys DI capabilities in their application environment
- Handles the deployment, management, maintenance and support of the DI solution
- Allows the customer focus on high-level strategy instead of the technical intricacies.
Within the DI offering, the Anonyome Platform has five licensable products:
- White label mobile DI wallet: A standalone mobile application for iOS and Android, a user can use the mobile DI wallet for DI interactions and storage: creating storing cryptographic keys; and creating connections for receiving, holding and presenting verifiable credentials. It interacts with verifiable credential issuers and verifiers, and supports both AnonCreds and W3C Credential formats.
- Mobile native DI wallet SDK: For customers who want to add the DI wallet functionality to their own mobile application, this native mobile SDK provides the capability for storage; creating cryptographic keys; establishing connections; and receiving, holding and presenting verifiable credentials.
- Verifiable credentials service/SDK/sample apps: This service establishes connections with DI wallets, issues verifiable credentials, and requests and verifies presentation proofs from DI wallets. It supports both AnonCreds and W3C Credential formats.
- Relay service/SDK: This service introduces an always-on capability for a mobile DI wallet. Implemented as a cloud service, the relay service provides mediator capability for incoming/outgoing verifiable credential and other messages, so that sending and receiving is not limited to when the client implementations of the mobile DI wallet and SDK are online.
- Governance framework:This framework empowers DI network participants to enforce rules while staying true to the tenants of DI. Organizations can define and enforce governance rules associated with their ecosystem, including which wallets, issuers, and verifiers are trusted and which credentials can be used and requested.
In addition to the current Anonyome Platform DI products, we are also developing:
- Enterprise DI wallet: A combination mobile wallet application and cloud wallet, the enterprise DI wallet manages credentials associated with the enterprise. Differing from a personal DI wallet, the enterprise DI wallet is intended for one or more users to use simultaneously and to be inheritable by a future occupant of a particular job or position within an enterprise.
The Anonyome Platform is a SaaS-based, API-first developer platform of individualized services
The Anonyome Platform offers a set of DI, privacy, and cybersecurity services and SDKs that developers can add as capabilities to their existing or new applications.
When a customer has licensed one or more of the services, we create a new deployment instance for that customer, which contains their specific licensed services. One of our platform’s unique features is it doesn’t use a shared deployment model (common for SaaS environments). Rather, our platform deploys environments individually for each customer. This means the customer can customize the environment for their needs, and that customer’s data and processing are completely separate from those of other customers.
Once we have deployed and configured an environment for a customer, we maintain and support it, which includes updating and patching it, and monitoring it 24/7.
Ready to start building?
Remember, we built the Anonyome Platform so you don’t have to, and we make it easy for you to make it your own. It’s a modular, turnkey collection of services including:
- DI
- Safe and private browsing
- Password management
- Virtual private network
- Compartmentalization
- Virtual cards
- Open and encrypted telephony and email communications.
You can use one, some, or the entire stack to augment your established offerings with adjacent capabilities that dramatically increase value for your customers.
The Anonyome Platform includes everything you need to quickly bring new products to market or augment existing products with value-add privacy and identity protection capabilities. It includes:
- Developer-focused documentation
- APIs
- SDK source code via GitHub
- Sample applications for test-to-deploy of various capabilities
- Brandable white-label apps for quick go-to-market deployments.
If you’d like to leverage the SaaS model and the power of Anonyome Platform, reach out today. We’re excited to see what we could build together.
